Little Ears and Electronics

This topic has been on my mind for recently. My kids don't use headphones very often, but when they do I worry about how loud it is in their ears. Most ear buds are too big for Lilly, but Claire uses them. Both sometimes complain that they make their ears hurt.
We will be heading to Florida for Spring Break and that means Nintendo DS and Ipods on the plane. I set out on a better alternative. I found something I loved. They are AirDrives. They go around the ear and the actual bud sits on the outside of the ear instead of entering the ear canal. I thought they were great until I looked at the price. $40! I know, I know...how much is my kids hearing worth. Well, at the rate they go through ear buds because they lose them or they get stepped on in the car, I couldn't bring myself to spend the money. I read through the comments and someone mentioned Lobies. I checked them out and they seemed like an affordable alternative.
They are soft, moldable for each kid, and regular ear buds go into them. I think that the they are going to like them. I bought the pink and purple glitter ones for the girls.
I'll let you know what I think of them after they arrive in a few days.

Salad on a Stick

Leah made toothpicks with tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese for Jack's birthday party. I do the same thing in salad form in the summer. Lilly ate approximately 20 of them at the party. Coco and I made some up for dinner tonight. The girls couldn't even wait for dinner and started feasting on them. Again, I think they ate more than their fair share. Lilly called them Salad on a Stick. I guess that is what we will be calling this from now on.
This one is for the family. Lilly said "Look Mom, I am Uncle Gord."

Snow Family

Today was a slow day for me. I am still recovering from the stomach flu so I laid low. Coco did me a huge favor and took the girls to see Planet 51. I took a nap while they were gone and by the time they got back I was ready for them.
Imagine my surprise when I woke up and found that they were all outside making a snow family.

They ran out of light and will finish them up tomorrow. I'll give you an update later.

Always the last to know

I stumbled upon the jewelry at Forever 21 this week. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to find such great necklaces at affordable prices.

Here are a few of the things I picked up.$9.80!

$10.80!

$6.80!

Then there are the hair accessories! Great for the little girls. Cheap! So, if they get lost or broken, it isn't a huge loss.

I got these in several colors. You can't go wrong for the price.

$1.50!

$3.80!

I can't wait to shop here each season to spruce up the wardrobe. Much cheaper than new clothes, just change up the accessories!

Mid Winter Break

This weekend was Mid Winter Break for Claire's school. I took Friday off of work to do something fun with the kids. We ended up going to Chuckie Cheese with Jodi and her kids for lunch and then met them again for dinner. Saturday, Claire and I had a girls day and went to run some errands.
Saturday night I set up the tent and preped for Camping night.
After dinner, we made smores.I tried to find a smore maker to borrow, but thought our table top grill would work. I was wrong. It didn't get hot enough to even brown the mellows. So we went on to plan B.
This actually made excellent smores!
The girls watched iCarley in the tent and fun was had by all.......Until about 1 am.
That is when Lilly came downstairs and woke me up saying she didn't feel well. She was not lying. She stared puking at 1:15 and didn't stop until noonish today. We slept in 20 minute increments all night long.
Claire has tomorrow off of school, but I am going to go to work because I cannot handle any more excitement. I think I need a Mid Winter Break.

One Cute Headband

I used two online tutorials to make one cute headband.
The first came from calico. She made some really easy and cute headbands and I love them!
Then I used a fabric flower making technique that was featured on Happy Find.


By combining the two techniques, I got a wonderful little addition to our hair accessory arsenal.

What 'cha think?

Do you need something to do on Thursday night?

If you live in the Grand Rapids area, there is something special happening this Thursday evening.
Jen Kroll and her husband Jay are going on a mission trip to Haiti to build a school. There are many things that need to be done before they can go and one of them is fund raising.
She tells the story best, so go to this link to learn more about what they are doing.
You can help by attending a the Haitian School Fundraiser Gala on Thursday.
There are tons of great stuff to be auctioned off and you can contribute in many ways. They already have collected a suitcase full of toothpaste, toothbrushes, tampons, soap and shampoo. An international school in Florida has also donated hundreds of French school and storybooks and are shipping them to the new school.
I know that we sometimes watch the news and think that the need is so big that anything that we could do wouldn't make a difference. This is one thing that we can all do together and make a huge difference.
email admin@jenkrollphotography to reserve your space. It is going to prove to be an amazing event.

Happy Valentine's Day

I couldn't find any Valentine's outfits that I loved and were affordable, so I improvised. I took shirts that the girls had and made them lovable. I had some knit fabric in my stash and decided to make a "ruffled" heart and add some ruffles to the sleeves. I drew the heart and just fed the knit through the machine faster than the shirt. A nice "faux" ruffle effect.

I am currently baking heart shaped cakes for them for snack tomorrow.

We did basic Valentine cards for their classes this year, but now that I have found these great ideas, I am going to stash them away for next year.

These matchbooks are awesome!
How about some owls?

These are the cutest things I have seen in a long time. Lollipop Photos!

Owl Always Love You

I have had a recent obsession with Owls. I love them. I love stuffed ones, jewelry ones, big ones, small ones, you name it. I decided I would share a few of my favorites with you.

First, let me introduce you to etsy. If you have no idea what I am talking about, get your butt over to etsy.com asap. This is the mecca of handmade goods. Here are the owls I found there:

If I knew how to knit well, I'd most certainly make these.

And check out this beauty. My favorite color combination and an owl in one! Can it get better?
Take a look at this beauty. This is from Old School Acres Flicker account.
Be sure to stop back tomorrow to see the Valentine shirts I made for the girls.

Amanda's Shower

Last weekend we had a family shower for my cousin Amanda. She and her husband adopted a beautiful baby girl. They have had to travel quite the road to parenthood, but all of the hard work has resulted in a wonderful family.
Most of my aunts and cousins came to my mom's house and we had a "nesting" shower. Amanda received tons of great stuff and lots of diapers. The rest of the group got a chance to welcome Baby L into our family.Amanda and her mom came early so that I could take some pictures of Baby L. (Click on the picture above for a larger view) She cooperated most of the time, but didn't like the bowl. The bowl is a beautiful hand blown glass bowl that my mom has at her house. I wanted to get a picture of her in the bowl. She did not want her picture taken in a cold, uncomfortable, glass bowl. So we postponed and tried again after the shower. That is when I got my picture of Baby L in the bowl. Yeah!!!

Polar Papa

If there was any doubt before, it is all gone now. My dad is officially crazy!
Today is a beautiful sunny day in Northern Michigan. It is a balmy 17 degrees.
So what is my dad going to do....Jump in Lake Cadillac.
The polar dip to raise money for the women's shelter in Cadillac is this afternoon and he is one of the crazy jumpers.
We took a picture in preparation for the big leap!

New Handbags Website

I finally made the leap. I started the process about a week ago, but the new site is finally live. I am looking forward to taking new pictures of the bags and making everything uniform, but I needed to make the switch now in order to avoid upgraded fees on my old server. Please check it out and let me know if you have any trouble or thoughts.
I hope that you like it as much as I do.